Burying Grapevines – The Tutorial

We are no doubt on the cusp of being in an extreme area for growing grapes. Our delicate Vitis Vinifera grapes are no match for the deadly winter temperatures we experience each year. Every time I tell someone how we combat this issue, the most common reaction is “What? Are you guys crazy?”. Grapevines are perennials so they lay dormant in the winter and come back to life full of green expression in the spring. So how do we keep them alive through the winter? We bury them! We hill the soil up and over the grape vines providing insulation from the winter chill. Yes, I think we might be crazy.

When I first learned about burying grapevines under the soil for winter protection, I definitely thought that was crazy and furthermore, I couldn’t picture it in my mind. So I wanted to take the time to show a few pictures of the process.

After harvest, we tie down between 4-8 canes from the current season’s growth to a wire a few inches off the ground. We then take a plow and pull the soil from the center of the row and pile it up over the canes which are tied down to the wire. We ensure that they are fully covered. We do this in November-December. The soil insulates the vines and protects them from the extreme cold. Then in the spring, the process is reversed and we start to unbury the vines by pulling the soil away from the vines and back in to the row. We then untie the canes, select 2 of those canes to tie up on the fruiting wire and prune the rest of the canes off. 

Here you can see what the vineyard looks like in the winter with last years canes above ground and about 4-8 canes tied to a wire under the mound of soil:

This next photo shows the canes still buried, but we have gone ahead and pruned off the aerial canes:

These next two photos show canes that are tied down and have recently been unburied:

And lastly, here is a picture of the canes being selected down to two canes per vine and tied to the fruiting wire:

This process is incredibly effective. We can often reach temperatures of -25°C to -30°C in the winter, but our vines under the soil will remain several degrees warmer sustaining them for the next season.

So although burying the vines is an extreme practice, and we do have to take extra care to manage the health of our soil, there’s a remarkable uniqueness in Prince Edward County wines that makes it worth all the extra effort.

That uniqueness isn’t just because we bury the vines, but even-more-so because of the perfect soil and the people who tend the vines and make the wines who are willing to go to extremes to present this amazing wine region to the world..